Porque
by bakagami
Summary: Summer seemed determined to avoid Seth at school all year, but what happens to their love-hate relationship when a field trip to NYC throws the bickering two together? SethSummer with a bit of MarissaRyan.
1. So it begins

**Porque?!**

**Disclaimer**: Me? Own the O.C.? HAHAHAAHAHAHAA....I wish...

Mrs. Langdon leaned against the blackboard, surveying her students over the rims of her goggle-like pea-green glasses as she announced the date for the annual New York field trip to her junior class. Some students looked over excitedly at their friends, some scribbled furiously in their agenda books, and some stared off blankly into space, as if to say, "So what? I've been to New York plenty of times before." Not surprisingly, Summer Roberts belonged to the latter category. In Mrs. Langdon's opinion, Sumer was the epitome of the snotty heiress type, and she really despised that type, especially since Mrs. Langdon was not that well-off herself. But no worries, Mrs. Langdon would get Summer Robert's attention soon enough.

Students thought that this fifty-six year old History teacher with the high-pitched voice and disheveled appearance never noticed anything, they thought that she was stupid, but Mrs. Langdon could be very observant when she wanted to be. Oh yes, thought Mrs. Langdon, she had noticed the one person that Summer could not stand to be partnered with, the one Summer threw the most scathing looks at. Girls like Summer Roberts usually pushed around their partners, never doing any work themselves, but this time that wasn't going to happen. Mrs. Langdon would make sure of that. She took a special delight in announcing the first pair of partners, her gaze never leaving Summer's face, relishing Summer's expression of dismay as she said, "Summer Robert's, you'll be working with Seth Cohen…"

"Coop, that old hag hates me," Summer ranted as she and Marissa lounged around the pool. "Why else would she pair me up with Cohen?"

"I'm sure you're overreacting. She probably assigned partners randomly. There's no way that she could know your history together."

"Yeah right. Didn't you see her gloating?"

Marissa had noticed, but she did not want to fuel Summer's paranoia, so she didn't respond. Personally, she felt that Seth and Summer needed this time to sort things out, so the last thing she wanted to do was to encourage Summer to complain to a teacher and get a new partner assignment.

Meanwhile, at the Cohen household, in the pool house, Seth was having a conversation with Ryan on the same topic, but in a different way.

"God loves me Ryan. There's no other explanation," Seth said happily.

"Well if he loves you, he hates me. I got stuck with Cindy the bimbo," Ryan complained.

"Ryan, Ryan, Ryan. When will you learn? You have to look at the silver lining. You can use Cindy to make Marissa jealous. How is God supposed to favor you when you can't even appreciate it when he gives you a good thing?"

"My bad. Wow, you sure seem to know God pretty well," Ryan said dryly.

"Yeah…It seems that God and women both can't resist my sexy charm."

The conversation came to an abrupt stop as Seth suddenly got pummeled by a pillow to his face.

The next week, the entire junior class was assembled at the John Wayne airport, gate B2, to board the airplane to New York. Because their flight was at six in the morning, almost everyone had a cup of coffee in hand. Mrs. Langdon looked disapprovingly at Summer with her Louis Vuitton luggage. Who did that girl think she was? They were only going for a week, yet she had packed the maximum amount of baggage allowed for a passenger. Seth was also sneaking glances at Summer, when he thought she was not looking. Once, she caught him looking at her and held his glance for a few intense seconds before turning away to talk to Marissa. When they boarded the plane, Mrs. Langdon gleefully announced the seating arrangement. Partners would be sitting together, she said. Everyone groaned.

Marissa's partner was Mike, a jock who mistakenly thought that Marissa took an interest in him. As she slid past him into the window seat, he sneakily pinched her butt when nobody else was looking. Marissa whipped around to glare at him, and he licked his lips in a perverted way. She sat down, shaken but furious. An hour later, when she got up to go to the bathroom, she subtly kneed him in the groin, smiling to herself as he doubled over in pain.

Ryan was having about as good of a time with Cindy. She constantly flipped her long blonde hair, and adjusted her tank top so that more of her fakely tanned cleavage showed. He groaned in disgust, and she took that as a sign of encouragement, and started talking to him. Her squeaky laugh could be heard by everyone as she babbled brainlessly about that time she made out with someone on an airplane much like this one. Had Ryan ever had a similar experience? No? Well he should. In fact…

Seth laughed out loud at Ryan's predicament only to be met by Summer's glare. He quickly stifled his laughter and turned to face the other way. The flight attendant came around to offer everyone coffee or tea. She was young, probably around twenty years old, with dark hair swept up into a chignon, and large hazel eyes.

"Coffee or tea?" She asked Seth with a smile.

"Hmm…I don't know. Which one is less watered down?"

She laughed uproariously at this, as if it had been a great joke or something. Seth was about to shoot her a weird look, but he felt Summer shifting beside him. She always had a jealous streak…

"You seem young for a flight attendant," he said conversationally.

"Well, I thought there was no point in going to college when I knew I wanted to be a flight attendant. Who needs college when I can travel all over the world and meet charming guys like you on the job?" She cooed.

"Don't you need to go refill people's drinks or something?" Summer spat at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is this your girlfriend?" She said disappointedly.

"No! Just go away!" Summer yelled.

Everyone turned to look at them, and the flight attendant said, "Miss, if you continue to act in a confrontational manner towards myself or any other crew members, I'm afraid that legal action will be taken against you."

The flight attendant stood up and walked away, winking at Seth and leaving Summer to gape furiously after her.

* * *

Reviews por favor if you want more. Muchas gracias. : )


	2. Lavoratory fun

Since the flight attendant left, Seth had fallen fast asleep with his mouth hanging slightly open, head lolling from side to side. Summer looked over at him in disgust. How did the dork manage to fall asleep when just five minutes ago he had been wide-awake, flirting with the flight attendant? Somehow, he looked so much younger asleep. Seth had boyishly long eyelashes and rumpled brown hair. Summer stared at him in fascination until his head suddenly started falling in her direction. Panicked, Summer did the only thing any reasonable person in her position would do: she smacked him on the head with her rolled up edition of Vogue. She turned her head to smile secretly in amusement as Seth woke up with a wounded and confused look on his face.

* * *

Marissa was having a much less amusing time than her best friend, because her partner still kept on giving her lewd looks. Just one seat ahead of her sat Ryan, with his ditzy partner who had not stopped talking ever since she had boarded the plane. A brilliant idea suddenly formed in her mind. It was so simple (and they were so simple) that it just might work.

"Psst! Ryan!" She whispered.

He turned around to face Marissa with a questioning look on his face. She beckoned for him to come closer while she whispered her plan to him. Meanwhile, Ryan struggled to pay attention to her words as her moist breath tickled his ear. Once she finished telling him, he grinned in agreement and set to work.

"Hey," Ryan said to his partner, "Wanna have some fun in the bathroom?"

Cindy blinked in surprise. What made him change his mind? It must have been her low-cut sequined tank top, her lucky shirt, she thought smugly.

"Just head back to the bathroom on the left," he continued.

"Don't be long," she replied coyly, fingering his arm.

Ryan suppressed a shudder.

Simultaneously, Marissa was telling her partner the same thing, as she leaned close, for added incentive...

"I'm ready for you now, baby," he grunted and thrust his hips forward.

Fighting the urge to grab the provided barf bag, Marissa managed to point him back towards the bathroom Cindy was in. As soon as he and Cindy left, Marissa and Ryan exchanged a secret, knowing smile.

It was almost like old times.

* * *

The flight attendant returned to Seth's side as Summer scowled at her.

"Mr. Cohen?" She asked demurely as she tapped his shoulder.

"Please, call me Seth," he replied charmingly.

She giggled, "Seth, I brought you a special drink," she said as she placed a pink concoction before him.

"Awww…look, it even has an umbrella," he said, smiling.

"I'd like to put an umbrella up her…" Summer grumbled and trailed off.

The flight attendant leaned closer to Seth and whispered, "I felt bad, because you had to sit next to her," as she tilted her head towards Summer.

Summer overheard her and her eyes blazed with fury. Uh-oh, Seth thought, here comes the rage blackout. But to his surprise, she didn't erupt…which actually scared him more. Summer was pretty angry, but she had a plan. The flight attendant was pretty, but she was no Summer Roberts. Of course, Summer knew that she couldn't go into one of her famous tantrums without getting into deep trouble, especially with Ms. Langdon supervising. There was an easier way…she would simply have to snatch Cohen's attention back, that's all.

"Excuse me," Summer said to Seth as she got up to "go to the bathroom. She brushed up close against him, slipping "accidentally" so that she could grab his shoulder, and so her face came dangerously close to his, holding his gaze for a split second. Then she stepped into the aisle, swaying her hips subtly as she went to the back of the plane, leaving Seth staring after her.

After Summer left, the flight attendant could see the glazed look on Seth's face, and decided to come back later. It was fine with Seth, who simply sat there, frozen, still lost in the moment. Seeing her up close, smelling her familiar perfume, was almost more than a simple Jewish boy could take.

Summer wasn't exactly calm either. That experience had jolted her more than she anticipated. Even though she thought that she would be in full control, it had been oh-so-tempting to just tilt her head forward a bit more. Summer pulled open the door to the bathroom and quickly slammed it shut again, after seeing more of Mike and Cindy than she ever wanted to. After finding another lavoratory, Summer stepped inside and just stood there for a minute, waiting for her pulse-rate to return back to normal. She reapplied her lip-gloss as her hand trembled slightly. Taking in a deep, calming breath—a difficult task considering that she _was_ in a public restroom (ew!).

* * *

Author's note:

Hey guys, thanks for the awesome reviews! I really love getting detailed feedback.

Muchas gracias Beth (lol, did u review twice?), Christy, adambrody10, Diggles, Candy.07, Giovanna, moviescript Ending, supergirl114, alexis, Trust23, LyNN-sUmmEr, urkbabes, kursk (loving the espanol), Daniela, Emily, raindrops falling. ocfan108 (I think so too), caroliscool, auggy1984, and oc.i.luv.u (you'll find out about the title).

You guys are the best! And yes, there will be more jealousy in the works...

Keep the reviews coming!


	3. Matchmaking Time

**Porque**

**Chapter 3**

By the time that Summer returned to her seat, there were only five minutes left before the plane reached New York. As soon as the captain announced that the plane would begin to land within the next minute, Summer felt Seth stiffen beside her. She looked curiously at him. He had squeezed his eyes shut and had the most terrified expression on his face.

Summer laughed at him, "Cohen, are you scared of landing?"

"Ha! Me, the great Seth Cohen, scared of landing? Of course not," he scoffed unconvincingly.

"Then why are your eyes closed you big dork?" Summer challenged.

"I…uh…was a bit tired, so I was going to take a nap."

"Really? A nap huh? Wow, that must be hard considering the fact that you're clutching the armrests so hard," she said sarcastically.

"No, not really. It's quite comfortable this way. You should try it sometime. In fact, I might even order one of these babies to put in my room instead of a bed."

"Really? Because it doesn't look like it could accommodate some of your other activities," she said in a deceptively innocent tone.

At this, Seth shot an intrigued look at Summer before he squeezed his eyes shut again as the plane hit a rough air patch. When the plane wobbled again, Seth yelped and clutched Summer's hand. If she wasn't so busy laughing at him, she would have clubbed him over the head with her purse. But as it was, Summer was just enjoying herself, not reading too much into anything.

* * *

Marissa heard the Summer's peals of laughter and looked over at where she and Seth were sitting. She smiled at their antics, and pointed it out to Ryan. He laughed and said, "Seth never was too fond of airplanes." Then, they both turned to look behind them at where their former partners were sitting. Cindy and Mike were, um, continuing to enjoy each others' company, oblivious to the fact that the plane was descending. When they had stumbled back from the bathroom earlier, they had asked Marissa to sit with Ryan so that they could sit closer together. Marissa had happily obliged. She and Ryan exchanged another secret smile.

"You know, you and I are pretty good at this matchmaking thing," Ryan quipped.

"I agree…maybe we should do this more often," Marissa said with a grin, "I think I see our next target."

Ryan turned to look at where Marissa was looking, and spied their next targets: Seth and Summer.

Ryan and Marissa weren't the only ones to notice Summer and Seth's newfound flirtation; Mrs. Langdon had noticed it too. Fortunately, she mistook their flirtatious bickering for genuine, mutual dislike. Excellent, she thought. And it would continue to get even better, if all went according to plan.

After the class shuffled off the plane and gathered their luggage, Mrs. Langdon led them on board a bus. That was when she decided to announce that their room assignments. There would be two people per room. Mrs. Langdon had wanted to assign them rooms with their partners, but even she did not dare to give co-ed room assignments. Therefore, she had allowed them to choose their own roommates. Of course Marissa was rooming with Summer, and ditto with Ryan and Seth. To their surprise, they found that their rooms were right next door to each other, and there was a connecting door. While Seth and Summer bickered over the room assignments, Marissa discreetly told Ryan to meet her outside in five minutes. When their clandestine meeting began, Marissa led Ryan into a corner behind the ice machine and quickly told Ryan her plan.

"Okay, so we decided to match up Seth and Summer, right?" Marissa said.

"Uh-huh," Ryan nodded.

"Well, I have a fail-proof way to get them together. It's so perfect that our rooms are connected, because all we have to do is switch during the night, and Seth and Summer will be forced to stay together overnight. And at the same time, Mrs. Langdon will never find out, because we'll switch again in the morning," Marissa said excitedly, her blue eyes sparkling in anticipation.

"And where will we stay?" Ryan asked.

"With each other of course," Marissa said matter-of-factly.

"Um…I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Ryan said slowly.

"Come on! We're just friends now! And I'm sure we're mature enough to handle this."

"Okay, but how are we going to prevent Seth and Summer from objecting to this?" Ryan inquired.

"We'll just have to convince them that we're a couple, and that we would like to spend the night together."

* * *

**Author's Note: It's a short chapter, but at least I'm updating more, right?**

**Show me the love! (review!) It makes me want to update more, lol.**


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